Claire had walked past Dahlia Boutique Boston a hundred times. She knew the shop well — a Boston institution for twenty years, tucked between the coffee place and the bookstore she'd been visiting since college. But she'd never actually gone in.

Until the day she saw the "Farewell Sale" sign.

"Something made me stop," she says. "Maybe it was knowing it was the last chance. And then I saw the dress in the window — the Anita. The ruffles were catching the light. I just stood there staring at it."

She walked out with the Anita in Blue. Three days later, she wore it to her niece's graduation brunch in Beacon Hill. By the time the meal was over, four women had asked her where she bought it.